NOT SO FAST!
Published:Sunday | April 13, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Group urges caution as Government vows to get tougher on delinquent parents
Ryon Jones, Staff Reporter
Government is getting ready to back up its threat to hold parents more responsible for the well-being of their children, but the National Parenting Support Commission argues that being tough will not solve the parenting problems dogging the country.
The commission's head, Dr Patrice Charles-Freeman, has warned that imprisoning parents could make a bad situation worse. "Then what happens when you have tougher laws and you arrest that parent and you don't educate the parent and you don't show parents, what it is to be an effective parent, or what that parent needs to develop in order to achieve positive parenting? Do you think it will be effective locking up parents and not educating them?"
She was responding to reports last week that the Ministry of Youth and Culture has started discussions with the Ministry of Justice for legislative changes to ensure that stronger measures can be taken against delinquent parents. "We will be holding parents accountable through a strengthened Child Care and Protection Act," said Youth Minister Lisa Hanna.
"The law is currently under review and recommendations have been made to allow the court to apply a range of sanctions for parental neglect, including parenting classes, counselling, mediation and other stronger measures," said Hanna.
However, Hanna did not say if these stronger measures will include an increase of the current maximum penalty which parents could face for neglect under the Child Care and Protection Act.
The maximum penalty for failing to report where it is suspected that a child is being or is likely to be abandoned, neglected, physically or sexually ill-treated, or otherwise in need of care and protection, is a $500,000 fine, or six months' imprisonment, or both.
According to Hanna, the decision to increase the penalties is in response to the increased number of child abuse reports received by the Office of the Children's Re-gistry (OCR). For the period of January to June 2013, the OCR received 6,206 reports, representing an increase of 37.9 per cent over the corresponding period in 2012.
campaign
In the meantime, Charles-Freeman said the parenting support commission intends to play its part to deal with this problem by stepping up its parental education campaign.
This is in an effort to help parents to live up to their responsibilities and not run afoul of the law. "Our support is going to come in the form of education; educating parents so that they are more aware of the child care and protection law," said Charles-Freeman.
"We are going to be working with the family court, Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the four child-care protection agencies - to conduct parenting workshops and sensitise parents on effective parenting, and also to make them aware of what the consequences are for neglecting their children."